Recently in Random Category
Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Canada Doug Elniski has been catching a ton of shit for posting the text of a speech that he gave a couple of weeks ago to junior high school students on his blog, where he supposedly told the girls that "men are attracted to smiles":
Part of the posting included advice to girls saying, "Ladies, always smile when you walk into a room, there is nothing a man wants less than a woman scowling because he thinks he is going to get s--t for something and has no idea what."It continues, "Men are attracted to smiles, so smile, don't give me that 'treated equal' stuff. If you want Equal, it comes in little packages at Starbucks."
Elniski's blog was taken down on Monday afternoon.
Blog gone or not, the real damage was done to the female students he reached that day. While Elniski clarified that the comparison between equality and a sweetener wasn't actually said at the speech and publicly apologized for the "stupid, inappropriate" comment on his blog, his creepy reference to smiles was said. He actually defends that one, claiming he was merely trying to say that "men and women should be friendly and approachable in dealing with others."
Nice try, dude.
Redeem thyself, fornicator.
Sugar Daddy's here, no need to worry about silly ole frequent flyer miles...
Reader Rebecca is a member of American Airlines' frequent flyer program, but wasn't too thrilled when she opened her inbox to find an email with this image and the tagline:
"She's thinking about dessert. You're thinking about the 1,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles you just earned."
I guess they didn't think about the fact that some of their customers in the program might be (I know it's hard to grasp but), um, female. Yeah.
Via Womanist Musings, I find myself speechless.
Located in the Netherlands, Fitness First took it upon themselves to use a different approach to marketing their clubs - public shaming. When someone sits on a bench to rest while waiting for the bus, the ad literally shows the person's weight in red numbers for the world to see. I second Renee's thoughts.
This isn't directly related to feminism, but we just had to give props to our tech grrlfriend Deanna Zandt who recently posted "A non-fanatical beginner's guide to Twitter," and I highly recommend checking it out.
Twitter is a beautiful thing for it not only gives you the opportunity to self-indulge shamelessly, but has become a critical tool for networking, resource-sharing and is the most immediate and direct way you can offer your thoughts and/or work to the world. Check it.
Yes, Valentine's Day is largely a commercialized, heteronormative and shallow holiday, but that doesn't mean we can't use it to give our readers some feminist love anyway! In short, we love you. Yes, more than Obama.
What are you doing to celebrate/subvert the holiday tomorrow?
I'm going to keep this short and sweet since you all had the pleasure of meeting Samhita's cats the other day, but I felt it necessary to give my kitten Tweet some Feministing love this week. She got spayed a couple of days ago and is absolutely miserable - mostly because she has to wear a cone on her head for the next two weeks and can't do the normal galavanting and troublemaking she usually gets into.
What's worse is that the cone is hella big on her tiny head, so her ears are flattened by its weight and she walks around with her head low to the ground as if sulking; it's a very sad sight.
Do folks have any post-spayed kitty tips so I can better comfort my healing baby?
I forgot to cover this after seeing its commercial, but luckily reader Saira reminded me today. One A Day vitamins are marketing their new product, Teen Advantage for Him and Her, and it ain't pretty.
It's not even the gendering of vitamins in general or even the pink and blue bottles they come in that really get me, but their contention of what's important for teen boys' and girls' growth:
Complete Multivitamins for Teen Boys & Girls to Support:** Healthy muscle function with Magnesium (for Him)
* Healthy skin with Vitamins A and C, Copper, and Iron (for Her)
That's right ladies. Who needs muscle function when you have the clear skin to attract strong boys to pick stuff up for you?
